2:46 pm Management talks: Opto Circuits told CNBC-TV18 that it is optimistic of prevailing with legal claims in excess of USD 160 million against parties.

Unviable operational segments are being closed, it said, adding the company is taking various strategic alternatives for additional capital & business opportunities.

According to the medical equipment maker, market size of EuroCor is likely to double over next 3-5 years. It expects growth in profit to continue over next few quarters.

2:40 pm Citi on Aurobindo: The research house believes Aurobindo is one of the best placed to ride out a challenging environment for generic companies in the US, courtesy of its relatively low product concentration, clean compliance slate, large and improving pipeline as well as strong execution.

Recent Q4 results, management commentary and approvals such as generic version of Renvela oral suspension further validate this view, it said. Moreover, rising scale and improving profitability in Europe would gradually reduce dependence on the US market and, along with better cashflows, augur well for longer term growth, it added.

2:20 pm Jayant Agro-Organics bonus issue: Jayant Agro-Organics has approved bonus issue in ratio of 1:1 in place of stock split. It has also approved raising upto Rs 250 crore via issue of various securities.

1:36 pm Market Check: Equity benchmarks continued to be in positive terrain in afternoon trade, helped by index heavyweights and banks.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 32.52 points at 31,108.25 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 14.35 points to 9,592.40.

Outperformance by broader markets also continued on positive breadth. About 1,388 shares advanced against 1,114 declining shares on the BSE.

1:20 pm Buzzing: Leading healthcare stocks like Lupin, Sun Pharma, Dr Reddy's Labs etc, which have larger proportion of US business in their revenues, dropped up to 6 percent intraday after a media report indicated of likely new US order to lower drug cost in the US.

President Donald Trump's administration is preparing an executive order aimed at lowering US drug costs and officials in the administration will meet later today, Bloomberg said quoting people familiar with the matter.

According to a report, one policy being discussed is support for value-based agreement, in which pharma companies and health insurers develop arrangements to pay for products depending on how well the work.

Sharekhan said this move could further create pricing pressure and hurt Indian companies that are already facing regulatory issues and currency woes.

1:13 pm Europe trade: Markets in Europe were higher as investors digest news of a fresh disbursement to Greece and focus on wider political events.

12:55 pm Capital needs of PSU banks: Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Deputy Governor SS Mundra said state-run lenders may need more capital beyond the budgeted total allocation of Rs 70,000 crore (USD 10.84 billion) in the four fiscal years through March 2019.

Mundra, addressing reporters in the sidelines of a banking event in New Delhi, also said there was no specific timeline set by the central bank to identify additional loan defaulters on which bankers would need to start bankruptcy proceedings.

The RBI this week had identified 12 of the largest loan defaulters and said creditors must pursue bankruptcy proceedings against them.

The electric equipment manufacturer informed exchanges that it is going to issue commercial paper, with a interest rate of 6.4 percent, to UTI Mutual Fund for an amount of Rs 150 crore.

Commercial papers are not proposed to be listed on exchanges, it said, adding the date of allotment of these papers would be June 20 and date of maturity would be September 18.

Yes Bank is acting as the issuing and paying agent to the said issuance.

12.19 pm Market Check: Benchmark indices continued to be rangebound in afternoon trade, with the Nifty hovering around 9,600 level due to lack of global as well as domestic cues. Experts feel GST implementation and June quarter earnings would be next triggers.

The 30-share BSE Sensex rose 26.60 points to 31,102.33 and the 50-share NSE Nifty was up 8.60 points at 9,586.65.

The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices outperformed benchmarks, up 0.2-0.4 percent on positive market breadth. About 1,330 shares advanced against 1,073 declining shares on the BSE.

Lupin topped the selling list among Sensex stocks, down more than 4 percent followed by Dr Reddy's Labs, Infosys, Sun Pharma and Wipro while ITC, HDFC and Tata Motors were gainers.

11:50 am BoAML on RIL: While it is good that RIL has decided to restart projects in D6, these are currently long dated projects, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said.

The new energy partnership is still in early stages and needs definition. Spending, inflow on this will take time, it feels.

In the near term, the RIL stock should depend on Jio's revenue fortunes, which may become clear only around September/December 2017. With 5 percent upside potential, it stayed neutral on the stock, BoAML said.

11:30 am Technical outlook: Domestic equity benchmarks regained bullish momentum since the start of CY17 after climbing the wall of worries in the backdrop of demonetisation and rate hike by the US Federal Reserve. A slew of financial and legislative reforms coupled with good monsoon forecasts for 2017 have boosted investor sentiments, ICICIdirect said.

The Nifty has behaved in line with expectations as it registered a breakout past two year consolidation and went onto achieve target of 9600, it added.

Based on the findings from bottom up analysis, the research house believes the renewed strength among major underlying constituents will continue to fuel the up move in Nifty towards 10500-10700 zone over the medium term.

Within the ongoing uptrend, there will be intermediate phases of consolidation that shall provide fresh opportunities, it said. It believes the support base for Nifty has shifted upwards to 8800-8900 zone. Any intermediate cool off from here on should be used as incremental buying opportunity, it advised.

Lupin fell 5 percent followed by Sun Pharma, Cipla and Dr Reddy's Labs. Infosys and HUL too were under pressure.

However, Reliance Industries rebounded after early losses, up 0.5 percent. ITC, Tata Motors, HDFC and HDFC Bank continued to support the market.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 16.82 points at 31,092.55 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 14.75 points to 9,592.80.

10:50 am Market Outlook: After a sharp rally witnessed so far in the last 12 months, the market does looks expensive and the valuations have stopped making sense, Sanjeev Prasad, Sr ED & Co-Head, Kotak Institutional Equities said in an interview with CNBC-TV18.

''If you look at market valuations, it has stopped making sense. If we look at Nifty, it is trading 20x March 18 numbers, which is still expensive. The bigger challenge is that the composition of Nifty has got nothing to do with India,'' he said.

''As much as 60 percent of the earnings are either got to do with global commodity stocks or global commodity companies,'' said Prasad. The bottom line is that I really can't find too much value in this market, he added.

10:25 am CLSA on RIL: Reliance and British Petroleum announced a USD 6 billion plan to develop discoveries in the D6 block which will deliver sustainable production of 30-35mmscmd beyond 2022.

The partnership has also been expanded beyond upstream to focus on fuel marketing, unconventional energy and new technology initiatives, to deliver value to customers.

"While these are clear long-term positives, start of projects worth over USD 40 billion in next 6- 9 months remains the key near-term trigger for the stock," CLSA said while retaining buy call on the stock.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 36.37 points at 31,112.10 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 22.55 points to 9,600.60 while the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices gained over half a percent on positive market breadth.

About two shares advanced for every share falling on the BSE.

ITC, Tata Motors, ICICI Bank, M&M and Axis Bank were top contributors to Sensex' gains while Reliance Industries, Infosys, Wipro and TCS were under pressure.

9:30 am FII View: Ridham Desai of Morgan Stanley said three-month return correlations across stocks have plummeted to single-digit levels for only the third time in 15 years.

The previous two occasions were accompanied by a major upward move in the market.

"The directional view on the market is more difficult for us to judge, even though in our base case we think that the pace of returns will slow down in the second half of 2017, Desai said.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 66.32 points at 31,142.05 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 26.40 points to 9,604.45.

HDFC Bank and Tata Motors were leaders in early trade while Infosys, Reliance Industries, HDFC and Asian Paints were under pressure.

The broader markets marginally outperformed benchmarks, with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices rising 0.4 percent each. Four shares advanced for every share falling on the National Stock Exchange.

Bhushan Steel (down 3 percent), Jyoti Structures (down 13 percent) and Amtek Auto (down 13 percent) were sharply under pressure after sources told CNBC-TV18 that these companies are in the list of 12 accounts to be sent to Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC).

Ipca Labs was down 13 percent after USFDA said all drugs manufactured at Ratlam unit will not be allowed to sell in the US.

BPCL, HPCL and IOC gained 1-3 percent.

The Indian rupee declined in the early trade. It has opened lower by 12 paise at 64.66 per dollar, lowest level since May 30, against 64.54 on Thursday.

Ashutosh Raina of HDFC Bank said the shrinking of Fed balance sheet can impact the EM currencies including rupee, and one can expect some weakness going ahead. He expects the USD/INR currency pair to trade in 64.40-64.70/dollar range today.

Indexes in Asia traded mixed following the declines in tech stocks on Wall Street and the Bank of Japan announced monetary policy. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 index gained 0.53 percent while South Korea's Kospi erased earlier gains to trade lower by 0.11 percent.